# Huge lighting difference with HDRI in level streaming

**URL:** <https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/huge-lighting-difference-with-hdri-in-level-streaming/2483291>\
**Category:** Rendering\
**Tags:** hdri, Level-Streaming, unreal-engine, editor, question\
**Created:** [April 30, 2025, 1:14pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/huge-lighting-difference-with-hdri-in-level-streaming/2483291 "2025-04-30T13:14:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![koromire1](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@koromire1](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/koromire1)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 1:14pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/huge-lighting-difference-with-hdri-in-level-streaming/2483291/1 "2025-04-30T13:14:39Z")

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Hello,

I’m using an HDRI Backdrop; if I don’t use it (for example, in interior scenes), everything looks fine.

Below is the same SubLevel with two different streaming methods:

**StreamingMethod: “Blueprint”**

 ![image](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/8/3/1/83186779403864bd773e980f1f1f0e269a4b2b0b.jpeg)

**StreamingMethod: “Always Loaded”**

 ![image](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/5/d/4/5d4884fb1ca2796ee991576a659aeaebf732558c.jpeg)

In the editor, the level always appears as if it were set to “Always Loaded,” regardless of the actual streaming method in use. This makes it impossible to preview the real lighting in the editor, since I plan to use all my SubLevel with the StreamingMethod “Blueprint”.

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**Author:** ![comlys](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/comlys/32/998665_2.png) [@comlys](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/comlys)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 5:57pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/huge-lighting-difference-with-hdri-in-level-streaming/2483291/2 "2025-04-30T17:57:43Z")

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I am having a hard time following. When you set it the Method to Blueprint are you toggling it off? What does it look like in PIE?

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**Author:** ![koromire1](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@koromire1](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/koromire1)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 6:35pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/huge-lighting-difference-with-hdri-in-level-streaming/2483291/3 "2025-04-30T18:35:17Z")

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In my **Editor** I have the **Levels** panel :

 ![image](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/4/a/0/4a049c3b786e766dc7c222042e0a24cedec3672c.png)

I right-click the sublevel in this panel and manually switch its streaming method by selecting the desired option.

 ![image](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/5/3/d/53d33dfc14b573d3302e9eda947acc538d705036.png)

Then, if the level’s streaming method is set to “Blueprint,” I dynamically load it using:

```auto
// Prepare latent action info
FLatentActionInfo LatentInfo{};
LatentInfo.CallbackTarget = this;                           
LatentInfo.UUID = FMath::Rand(); 
LatentInfo.Linkage = 0; 
LatentInfo.ExecutionFunction = FName("OnLevelLoadedCallback"); 

// Load the level in streaming
UGameplayStatics::LoadStreamLevel(this,
    LevelNameResolver::GetName(levelToLoad.id),
    true,
    true,
    LatentInfo);

```

When the streaming method is set to “Always Loaded,” calling `LoadStreamLevel` has no effect, since the level is already loaded.

In my previous post, both screenshots are from PIE. Between them, I changed the sublevel’s streaming method. You can see that the objects placed in the sublevel are lit differently, even though their lighting comes from the same HDRI backdrop (which is placed in the persitent level).

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![comlys](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/comlys/32/998665_2.png) [@comlys](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/comlys)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2025, 3:57pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/huge-lighting-difference-with-hdri-in-level-streaming/2483291/4 "2025-05-07T15:57:59Z")

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Its sounds like that level is not loading when its going into PIE in MRQ. I would try and debug your code.

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**Author:** ![koromire1](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@koromire1](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/koromire1)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2025, 3:22pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/huge-lighting-difference-with-hdri-in-level-streaming/2483291/5 "2025-05-25T15:22:33Z")

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I don’t understand what MRQ has to do with it, I’m not trying to render a cinematic, those are game capture. Maybe posting this post into rendering was not the right choice, my bad.

The level is loading, it’s just the shading is very brigh when its loading at runtime.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![comlys](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/comlys/32/998665_2.png) [@comlys](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/comlys)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2025, 4:52pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/huge-lighting-difference-with-hdri-in-level-streaming/2483291/6 "2025-06-09T16:52:45Z")

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My bad, I’m not sure where I got MRQ from. But anyways it does not seem like its loading in PIE. Does it give any feedback in the log of why its failing to load the level?